Cross-posted from Sociolingo’s Africa

Posted by sociolingo on May 5, 2008

A new blog, The Face of Afrika, is aiming to focus on positive news celebrating the continent of Africa. Please support this initiative.

One recent post about The 52nd Venice Biennale: The African Pavilion and Malick Sidibé’s Achievement caught my eye:

The Venice Biennale’s prestigious Golden Lion lifetime achievement award was presented to Malick Sidibé, from Mali. The artist made history. Not only was he the first photographer to be so honored but Sidibé was the first African artist to ever win the award.

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement:
Malick Sidibé, born in Soloba, Mali, in 1936. Lives and works in Bamako, Mali.

Photo credit AFP

Read the full post

Interesting article seen on the Talahasee.com

From the page:

“In his free time, young Wague (pronounced “wah-GAY,” it means “Man of Trust”) tracked the animals in the bush. And at night, he went to school.

It wouldn’t be your typical study session. The student didn’t sit hunched at a desk, poring over a book in the yellow flicker of an oil lamp’s light, fist wrapped around a stub of pencil and youthful brow furrowed with thought. The teacher in this class was Diakite’s grandmother, who would gather the children around the fire and tell them fantastical folktales.

….

“It was like going to a movie. Sometimes the stories seemed to be an action movie, sometimes they were about moral issues and sometimes they were about love.

“It was both entertainment and education. Grandmother always said that we would not go to school unless we were educated first in the traditional way.”

The stories told all those years ago in that far-away village take on colorful form and substance in Diakite’s art. An exhibit of his vivid hand-painted ceramics was unveiled Friday at Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy, with Diakite on hand at the opening reception.”

Baba Wague Diakite’s vivid hand-painted ceramics complement his stories. “Where they come from is my root, and part of that root is the farm work, digging in the soil every day, making adobe bricks and building adobe houses.”

Read the full article

Each of these videos tells a different story behind Hallmark(RED), including an interview with (RED) co-founder Bobby Shriver on the AIDS epidemic in Africa and what (RED) hopes to accomplish; the story of how the Hallmark(RED) collection grew out of one card, as told by Sarah Mueller of Hallmark, who worked on the very card that started it all; and, interviews and video with two Malian craftswomen who hand-make the Mali Mud Cloth bags.

The inspiration of the Hallmark ‘red’ campaign video

(RED) a new partnership

Handcrafted bags from Mali video

The fashion blog The Perfect Touch has a great article (in French) on how Mali’s ‘Bogolan’ fabric became a fashion statement last year. Here are some pix from the Givenchy Collection 2007. Don’t worry if you don’t read French, it’s worth a look for the pictures!

Source: Earth Architecture

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne, a new film by Susan Vogel and presented by the Musée National du Mali, is the story of Komusa, master mason and heir to the secrets of Djenne architecture. He hopes his son will continue the family profession and maintain their world heritage city - but Djenne is connected to a global world now, and competing ideas about the future have arrived. Documentary footage and staged scenes tell an intimate story of family tensions, contemporary building practices, and the precarious future of the renowned mud architecture of Mali.

Treehugger writes of the film:

A “collective connection to earthen architecture is best seen in the film’s footage of the annual re-plastering of the town’s pride, the Great Mosque, which is the world’s largest earth building, in addition to being a distinguished UNESCO World Heritage site. The first earthen structure here on this site dates back to the 13th century and is re-plastered every year. The day-long, annual festival is truly a communal affair, with plenty of foreign tourists gawking on and filming the orderly chaos.”

photo of the Great Mosque of Djenne by Ferdinand Reus

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne
Co-Produced with Trevor Marchand and Samuel Sidibé.
Edited by Harry Kafka. Music by Issa Bagayogo. In Bamana, French, English with English subtitles. Color, 58 minutes. Distributed by FRIF.com. Available fall 2007.

Source: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Chi Wara Headdress
19th-20th century
Bamana culture, Mali
Wood, 34 by 13 1/2 by 3 3/4 inchesAfrica is the home to a wide variety of animal life in and African artists often incorporate images of animals to express ideas.

The Chi Wara mask is one such example of African art. Chi Wara translates as “animal of tillage.” In Bamana belief, a mythical creature-the primordial Chi Wara-was the first farmer, a wild beast who taught mankind how to cultivate fields. Today, the skills of farming are still critical to sustaining life on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

In this sculpted mask and others of the same type, the mythical creature is represented by combining aspects of different animals. The lower body represents the aardvark, a type of anteater that burrows into the ground with its claws and snout. The way an aardvark scratches at the earth reminds the viewer of planting crops. The head of the sculpture with the tall thin antlers of a roan antelope remind the viewer of growing millet, a grain commonly grown in the region. And, the zigzag patterns stand for the path of the sun between winter and summer solstices also suggesting the way an antelope runs. The Chi Wara is formed into a crest mask, which sits on top of the dancer’s head attached to a basketry cap. The dancer’s body and face are hidden by a costume of grasses and fibers that is a symbol of rain-essential to growing food. Beads, leather, and metal attachments often are added to embellish the masquerade.

Performances with Chi Wara headdresses are done by champion farmers at times of land clearing, plowing, planting, and harvest. The dance is done in a bent over attitude to show “an excellent farmer hoes the ground continually, without straightening up to rest.” The performance is hoped to aid in the farmer’s efforts to make something out of nothing - growing crops from the dry ground.

There is also a Chi Wara society in which elders teach young farmers to preserve the knowledge of agricultural practices. This society prepares boys to become fathers and husbands by focusing on skills needed to be successful farmers to provide for their family and contribute to the community as a whole. In daily life, women help with farming chores as well. In similar fashion, there are male and female versions of the headdress that are danced in pairs. Drummers provide the beat as women sing and call out praises to the ideal farmer.

We hear quite a lot about major corporations and their negative impact on the African continent. However, just recently I was contacted by a representative for Hallmark Cards who had read this blog and wanted to tell me about a textile project they are running in Mali. As many of you know Mali is famous for bogolan mudcloth textiles.

Hallmark is now a partner with the (RED) campaign. Like other PRODUCT (RED) partners, Hallmark’s gifts and cards raise money for the Global Fund’s fight against AIDS and other diseases in Africa, but this campaign also supports Malian artisans and their local economies. Artisans in Bamako, Mopti, San, and Sevaré are working with Hallmark to produce the Mud Cloth Bag that is part of Hallmark’s collection of PRODUCT (RED) items, generating jobs and income for these artisans. I’ve attached a picture of one of the Mud Cloth Bags for you to see (there are several designs). This is the first export to use Mali’s African Growth and Opportunities Act textile visa.

For more information, please visit www.hallmark.com/red1 - there, you can learn more about the Mud Cloth Bag, and Hallmark’s involvement with the (RED) campaign.

 

 

I’ve just come across a web journal of a young engineering graduate, Tom Owen, who went to Mali to explore the role of technology in the lives of Malians. The post I looked at explored pottery techniques. I was interested to see that they were thinking of introducing the innovation of a diesel driven pottery wheel. My reaction was quite negative as I read about it. I then read on to the comments following the post and saw that others shared my reservations. I think we have to be very careful about introducing innovations which are difficult to sustain. Diesel fuel is expensive and in today’s awareness of green technology this is not a good idea. One of the commenters suggested that a foot driven wheel would be a better option. I would question whether either a diesel or foot driven wheel is capable of making the huge water jars that the women Owen described make. They currently make them in several stages for very good reasons - these huge jars need drying at various stages so that they do not collapse. The techniques used are very ancient, and we should also question whether an intervention which changes irrevocably this ancient technique would actually bring about culture loss. More is not necessarily better. This also impinges on the supply chain. Another commenter said:

Given social acceptability and widespread use of such a technology, would increased production be met with continued demand and thus greater income or market saturation and decreased returns?

To be fair, the Multifunction Platform  (a 10 hp diesel engine which can power things like corn mills) does seem to be making a lot of difference to women in the village. However, there are other projects in Mali which are now using locally produced green technology biofuels from Jatropha oil to power generators. See the Mali Folke Center.

So, for me there are two issues with using technology for culture change.

• Does the change promote culture loss?
• Is the change sustainable?

I’ve written about Geekcorps Mali a number of times in this blog. They are doing excellent work in Mali helping people to help themselves. They also give help to other organisaions and individuals who are trying to help Mali people. There is an article on their site , Taking a turn toward technology about how students from Carleton College in the US have received technical aid from Geekcorps Mali  to set up equipment for a women’s organisation, Nyeleni,  in Segou.  The women weave rugs and the students who visited them felt a computer would help the women to record their data,do simple accounting and manage the income generating aspects of the project. They raised $700 to support future partnership projects with the women’s organisation, and sought help from Geekcorps about the computer and programmes needed.

Sara received these recommendations and bought the necessary equipment including Norhtec’s mini ITX computer which has qualities like a VIA. It only uses 8-12 watts of power, can withstand hot climates due to it’s casing, and is sealed to protect from dust. She bought a HP laser printer and a UPS (battery backup) in Bamako and was able to find a flatscreen LCD monitor, mouse, and keyboard in addition.

Based on Geekcorps’ recommendation, Sara put Ubuntu Linux on the machine, however she needed some help installing the printer. Sara brought her computer to Geekcorps where technicians, Ludo and Tamian, helped her get the printer working. They also installed additional accessories like XMMS (a program for playing music), VLC ( a disc reader), Tux Type (practical typing tutor), and moulin (Geekcorp’s offline version of the french Wikipedia). Aside from these additions, Sara had previously installed Abiword, Open Offices’ version of Excel, and Power Point.

The students are now planning to spend some time with the women, teaching them to use the computer and programmes, and in 2008 another group of students will visit the group and hopefully help them with marketing skills, again with the aid of Geekcorps Mali.

Source: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/arch/niger/ceramics.html

Summary Description of the Pottery of the Jenne-jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana Assemblages Copied and adapted from Mcintosh, Susan, ed. (1995). Excavations at Jenne-Jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali), the 1981 Season. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Phase I/II (c. 250 B.C. - A.D. 350). The pottery assemblage in the earliest levels consists primarily of simple rims from ovoid-shaped open bowls, restricted globular jars, and domed potlids. Together, these constitute 70-100% of the rim sherds in early occupation levels. Rims from more complex forms (everted rims, carinated forms) are rare. Many of the Phase I/II vessels must have had rounded bottoms as the ratio of base to rim sherds is 12.5/100. Ring bases predominate, but flat and pedestal bases are also found. Several fragments of cylindrical potlegs were also recovered. Rim diameters are generally small, and there are remarkably few sherds with demonstrable signs of use as cooking pots.
In general, Phase I/II pottery was very well made. Paste was predominantly medium textured, with grog tempering. Occurring in variable frequencies was a distinctive category of thin-walled, finely prepared pottery that produced the high-pitched clinking of fine china when two sherds were knocked together. Its fine fabric is responsible for its high-pitched sound and refined appearance: the paste includes clay, variable amounts of quartz sand, and a small quantity of finely ground grog. Sherds with medium-texture paste have larger amounts of coarser grog. This fineware was produced only in Phase I/II. The care with which it was produced is evident not only in the fineness of the paste and thin walls but also in the exceptionally smooth and even surface finish. From the fine surface lines, it is clear that a tournette was used to turn the pot slowly during manufacture, just as it is by Jenne potters today. The careful smoothing was probably done with a piece of leather. One fineware rim and several others in the Phase I/II study collection had the characteristic dimpled surface created by the hammer-and-anvil technique which would have thinned the walls, removed irregularities, and smoothed the surface of the piece.
The dominant decorative mode in Phase I/II is twine impression. Over 75% of the body sherds are decorated with twine alone (plain sherds = <5% of the body sherds; slipped = 10-15%). Impression with a plaited strip roulette accounts for 70% of the twine-decorated body sherds. Rim sherds have smaller relative frequency of plaited strip roulette and larger frequencies of twisted twine rouletting due to the popular practice in Phase I/II of placing a zone of twisted twine roulette impression near the rim, directly above the plaited strip roulette impression covering the greater part of the pot surface. In addition to these two roulette types on the same pot, other decorative modes unique to Phase I/II include rockering, fine horizontal incision superimposed on other roulette types, cord-wrapped stick roulette, and red paint applied in cross-hatching on an unslipped zone below the lip of simple open bowls. Black and white paint and channeling (multiple grooves) are virtually non-existent in the early part of this phase. They appear at the end of the phase, foreshadowing the explosion in popularity of paint-and-channeled pottery in the succeeding phase. With the exception of single grooves and incision (on twine), other plastic motifs are largely absent throughout Phase I/II, although two examples of raised applique were recovered, both on singular objects that may not have been used in a domestic context.

More 

Metropolitan Museum of Art pages

Encompasses present-day Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and eastern Chad

	See also Guinea Coast and Eastern and Southern Africa. The influence of Islam and the deepening networks of trade spur the growth of several great savanna states, including the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires. Further development of metallurgy contributes to both material wealth and artistic production, and Arab reports depict the Ghana empire as the “Land of Gold.” As well as stimulating trade, Islam sparks great cultural and artistic innovation, producing newly syncretic mixes of distinctive regional and Islamic traditions. In 1324–25, the ruler Mansa Musa brings the wealth of the Mali empire to the attention of Europe, North Africa, and Arabia when he completes a pilgrimage to Mecca. Architectural traditions are transformed during the Mali empire. The construction of enormous adobe mosques such as those at Jenne and Timbuktu dates to the thirteenth century. The mosques standing today in West Africa are the product of long histories of construction and reconstruction. They nevertheless reflect the economic conditions, cultural histories, and architectural traditions of the medieval empires from which they originated. Read the full article

Continuing my thoughts on Mali archaeology today, here is an article from a travel blog - Michael and Doria’s travel tales. The photos are about the best yet that I’ve seen of archaeology in situ in Mali, and I have taken the liberty of posting the whole article here rather than just a snippet. Please go to the blog and enjoy all the other articles too!

Djenne and Djenne jenno

The city of Djenne is known first and foremost for its magnificent mud mosque, built in 1906 on the site of several more ancient mosques dating back to the thirteen century. It’s hard to communicate the experience of standing in front of this building - its sheer size coupled with the otherworldliness of its aesthetics…

Only a few kilometers away is the Djenne Jenno - Old Djenne. It’s the original site of the city, abandoned when the town moved to its current site in the early thirteenth century. In the 1990’s there was an active dig here, but work stopped in 1999. The site is remarkable - it is absolutely covered in potshards.

Here’s a photo of Sarah taking a photo of one …

We spent a couple hours wandering around, and could have stayed longer. But we were accompanied by the director of the little archeology museum on the site, who wanted to get back. I have a hunch he was along primarily to make sure we did not remove any artifacts.

Here is a fragment of a black pot with elaborate desgins etched into the surface…

Further along we came upon the ruins of the cemetery. Burial was in large urns, in foetal position. I was startled to see the occupant of this one so plainly visible. At first I thought it rude to photograph him-or-her, but then seeing how he was tucked in so cosy and sleeping comfortably all these hundreds of years, I took a photo anyhow.

But let’s not leave Djenne on a note of death. It’s a very lively town. We spent new years eve there - Doria and I downed quite a few Grand Castels, the Malian beer in the the big, big bottle. On New Year’s day Sarah took this shot, which shows how the life of the town goes on not indoors, but on its rooftops and in its courtyards.

Source: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.30

Spring 2007, Vol. 40, No. 1, Pages 30-41
Posted Online February 6, 2007.

(doi:10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.30)

Marks of Identity: Potters of the Folona (Mali) and Their “Mothers”

Barbara E. Frank

PDF (1,127 KB)

PDF Plus (444 KB)

I was going through my old diaries the other day and I found entries from a trip to the south of Mali, where we stayed in a village called Zebala which is about 50kms from the nearest big town, Koutiala.

Zebala is a centre for cotton production. You’ll see the cotton trees all over the village. In fact, it’s hard to ignore cotton in Zebala. The fluffy balls blow around in the wind and get in your hair. Enormous lorries rumble into the village in the early dawn hour, shaking you in your bed. You’ll think it is thunder and wait for the lightening! They come to collect the cotton which is stored in huge collection pits all over the village. Women walk in with huge bales on their heads and these are loaded into the pits, and later onto the lorries. In the evening, the whole procession is reversed with the huge lorries rumbling out of the village into the darkening bush.

But not all the cotton is sent out of the village to be bought by middle-men and sold on - some of the cotton is reserved by families. I spent one afternoon filming a lady spinning cotton into thread. It was a process as fascinating as it was deft. An age-old skill is still being maintained and the skill is passed on from mother to daughter. She took a hank of rough cotton, tweaked out a corner of it, attached her weighted spindle to that and then, almost by magic, the cotton thread began to appear. This was wound on deftly.

Another day, I was visiting the local tailor. His friend was there - the bogolan cloth maker. You can see him in this photo on the left. He proudly showed me hand woven cloth that he had dyed himself and which had been made into a suit by the tailor. This was the next step in the process. He was a Bogolan specialist. Bogolan is a special Malian process of printing on cotton using mud-based dyes. The mud is “mined” from the river. The cloth is first dyed a reddish brown, and then black designs are printed on. It is a very specialized trade and again is passed on from one generation to another. The inspiration is from nature and often incorporates animal prints, or tracks, and objects from nature. I admired the suit that he had on and asked him if he would make a suit just the same for my husband. These Bogolan suits are very much admired and are often worn by hunters. The suit he was wearing had an all over print that was a bit like a leopards paw print. I was delighted when he agreed. Then we sat down for a cup of sweet Malian tea before agreeing a price.

Some weeks later, when I was back in the capital, Bamako, a parcel arrived for me. It was the Bogolan suit for my husband. Specially printed, with the year on the front! He is very proud to wear it. We found out later that it is quite rare to own one of these suits, and he has had several envied comments. We feel really privileged that this bogolan cloth maker and the tailor were happy to make one for us.

See also http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/zebala-a-village-in-the-sikasso-region-mali/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-3-houses/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-4-henna-for-feet/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-5-christmas-in-the-village/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-6-the-hill/

The Dogon of Mali are better known for their astronomy and wonderful cliff dwellings. But there are also wall paintings in caves. Here’s a great picture of some of the paintings by Arctic Photo

Here’s what seems to be a close up of the same place from Staffan at Flickr

He says it is the place of boy’s initiation, Songo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staffan_martikainen/91859555/

A further pic and more information from Judy D at Flickr who says that ‘The rock paintings are spiritual symbols for the circumsion ceremony and are repainted each time’.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/judyd/391622380/